The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.
There is an electrophotographic image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copier or a facsimile machine including a plurality of developing units respectively storing predetermined toners (i.e., developers). The developing units are provided so as to face image bearing bodies, and configured to develop latent images formed on the image bearing bodies. Toner cartridges (i.e., replaceable components) are detachably mounted to a main body of the image forming apparatus for replenishing the toners to the developing units.
Further, there is proposed an image forming apparatus capable of determining whether a toner cartridge mounted thereto is guaranteed to be used in the image forming apparatus. Such an image forming apparatus has a communication unit for communication with a communication unit provided on the toner cartridge (mounted to the image forming apparatus), reads individual information of the toner cartridge, and determines whether the toner cartridge conforms to the image forming apparatus. When the mounted toner cartridge does not conform to the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus performs processing which is different from normal processing (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-3259).
There may be cases where an image forming apparatus (for example, a printer) is first launched on the market, and at a later time an improved image forming apparatus (provided with an additional function such as a scanning function, or modified in function) is launched on the market. Here, the image forming apparatus first launched on the market is referred to as the “preceding image forming apparatus”, and the image forming apparatus later launched on the market is referred to as the “succeeding image forming apparatus”. The succeeding image forming apparatus has individual information which is different from that of the preceding image forming apparatus. The toner cartridge used in the succeeding image forming apparatus has individual information which is different from that of the toner cartridge designed used in the preceding image forming apparatus.
In the conventional art, determination whether the toner cartridge conforms to the image forming apparatus is performed based on whether the individual information of the toner cartridge matches the individual information of the image forming apparatus. Therefore, even when the toner cartridge is configured to be compatible with different image forming apparatuses (for example, the preceding and succeeding image forming apparatuses), the toner cartridge may be restricted from being used in the image forming apparatuses. As a result, the toner cartridge (i.e., the replaceable component) needs to be managed in a complicated manner.